Title 31
Motor and Other Vehicles

Chapter 26
Accidents and Accident Reports

R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-26-3.3

§ 31-26-3.3. Duty to stop in accidents involving motor vehicles and bicycles not resulting in serious bodily injury or death — Duty to give information and render aid — Penalty.

(a) The driver of any vehicle knowingly involved in an accident with a person riding a bicycle shall immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident or as close to it as possible, and shall immediately return to and in every event shall remain at the scene of the accident. The driver shall render to any person injured or struck in an accident reasonable assistance, and shall immediately, by the quickest means of communication known to the driver or which should have reasonably been known to the driver to be available in the locality, give notice of the accident to a nearby office of local or state police. In the event the office so notified does not have jurisdiction of the locale of the accident, it shall be the duty of the officer receiving the notice to immediately give notice of the accident to the office having jurisdiction.

(b) The officer receiving the notice set forth in subsection (a) of this section shall, if the circumstances reasonably require, immediately dispatch an ambulance or emergency medical service to the scene of the accident. Any police or fire department responding to a call for emergency medical service or assistance to a person injured in an accident shall continue to the locale of the accident even though it is outside the jurisdiction of the department and shall render any emergency service that is reasonably necessary.

(c) The driver of the vehicle shall, upon request, give his or her name, address, and registration number of the vehicle the driver is driving and shall exhibit his/her operator’s or chauffeur’s license to the person struck, but in any event shall remain at the scene of the accident until he/she has fulfilled the requirements of § 31-26-3.

(d) Any person failing to stop or comply with these requirements under the circumstances shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), and may have his or her driver’s license or operating privilege in this state suspended for up to six (6) months.

History of Section.
P.L. 2006, ch. 585, § 2.